58-year-old Mildura man sentenced by the Victorian County Court for kidnapping elderly mother

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A Mildura man who held his mother, hostage, within her own home on account of kidnapping has been handed a term of three years and nine months imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and three months.

The 58-year-old – under the pseudonym Stuart Arthur – appeared in court virtually via an audio-visual link from custody when he was sentenced for 12 charges in late April of last year. This included causing injury recklessly, kidnapping, and false imprisonment.

The County Court of Victoria heard Arthur’s mother had endured physical abuse at the hands of Arthur over several days. Arthur had struck his mother with a baton to wake her up, held a Stanley knife to her face, threatened to “cut her into little pieces” and caused bleeding to the nose and mouth.

The attacks on his mother began at 2 am on April 10 last year and included common assault, denying his mother access to water and dragging her towards the house by her hair.

In her victim impact statement, the defendant’s mother said she suffered from flashbacks and insomnia.

“When you’ve been bashed – really bashed - you can’t give up a defence anymore. I just wanted to get out of it. I just wanted to die.”

Judge Michael Cahill described Arthur’s verbal and physical aggression as “shocking and shameful” but considered he had lost his wife to cancer in the lead-up to the offence and suffered serious injuries in a motorbike accident.

It has also been acknowledged that had Arthur been compliant with his medication to treat schizophrenia, Arthur would not have been so aggressive.

Psychologist Dr Mirabel McConchie said “Mr Arthur unravels quickly in his mother’s presence” and attributes his beliefs of persecution by his mother to auditory command hallucinations of his mother’s voice telling him that he is “useless and “no good”.

Arthur will be eligible for parole in 2025 and hopes to move to New South Wales to live near his daughter and grandchildren.